Representative Cost Centers 

Purpose

You cannot post to or plan on representative cost centers. You assign representative cost centers to standard hierarchy nodes or to an alternative hierarchy.

You need representative cost centers for:

·  Summarizations (see also: Cost Center Summarization).

In summarization, the system collects data from cost centers in the assigned cost center group as an independent dataset in the representative cost center.

·        Reporting

The representative cost center supplies totals records for Report Writer reports, using the data created with the summarization. To evaluate the summarization data, you must create user-defined reports. Example reports can be found in report library 1RU.

SAP recommends gathering together all representative cost centers existing in the standard hierarchy, or in the alternative hierarchies, into a single node. You should then assign this node below the top node in the hierarchy.

Process Flow

1.      Create a cost center, as described in Processing Master Data.

2.      To lock the representative cost center against manual postings, choose Indicators in the Cost Centers basic screen and set the lock indicators.

3.      In cost center group maintenance or in the standard hierarchy, enter the representative cost center in the report information. Choose Extras  → Report information in the Change Cost Center Group screen, and enter the representative cost center in the Report Information dialog box.

 

SAP recommends that you give the same name to the representative cost center as the node of the cost center group to which it is assigned.

 

If, during report information maintenance, you enter a representative cost center that has not yet been created as a cost center in the controlling area, the system issues an appropriate message. If you still enter the representative cost center, the system issues an error message following the subsequent summarization run.